The Time is Now

OK, so it may not be Summer, but this is the kind of weather I like to see when I have more than a week off work! It was so beautiful yesterday after a grey start, so I’m hoping today will be the same.

The site has been very active over the long May Day weekend. People arriving with egg boxes full of spuds with the same plan as us. We haven’t gone over the top with potatoes this year. We have 2x2 Nicola in bags and these in the ground. Sarpo Mira is a maincrop with good blight resistance; Desiree is a maincrop which makes amazing mash and Nicola is a second early which is a tasty salad potato and good for mashing.

The beetroot seedlings are struggling to arrive but some of the seeds that we sowed a week ago in the polytunnel have started to appear so morning visits will be needed for opening the doors and watering if it’s going to be warm. The temperature quickly rises to over 30° in there if the Sun appears.

A few more seeds sown at home this weekend are: Radish Rat’s Tails, Bush Delicata squash, Sunburst patty pan, All Green courgette, Tall Timbers sunflowers and Jack-Be-Little pumpkins. Also, lobelia which made me think that I shouldn’t have complained about the size of the Nicotiana seeds last week! And these are the parsnip seeds that I germinated on paper towel in a plastic lidded container.

They’re sown into the ground which has been under black weed suppressant for a couple of weeks. I sowed two rows: the row on the left in this photo was pre-germinated, so will see what difference it makes, if any. I’ve put a cover over them more for protection from birds than any good reason.

A few more seeds sown were radish and perpetual spinach in the raised bed. The Egyptian walking onions are growing very slowly and look very similar to the grass and weeds that I had to clear but now the weather is cheering up a bit they may get moving (not walking yet 🤭). 

And lastly, two rows of Spring onions, some red, some white have been sowed on Plot 3 where Jamie also spent a lot of time yesterday digging the hole for the melon to grow.

The purple sprouting broccoli on that plot is beginning to flower. I’m hoping to get at least one more harvest. I included some in this Katsu curry with Cluck the other evening - delicious.

I appreciate these photos are mainly of dirt, but well, it’s that time of year.  To make up for all the brown in this blogpost, here’s a beautiful little phlox flower that’s growing on the fringes of the HAHA Wildlife plot bog garden.

And here’s a ladybird, they’re just beginning to emerge and will be looking out for mates now. I hope the larvae arrive before the blackfly this year!

The birds have mostly paired up now - we’ve seen pairs of goldcrest, blue tits and great tits in the hedge. The robins are feeding their females and are very demanding of us with their tuneful song. The jackdaws and magpies are squabbling even more than usual and are most upset by the carrion crow that has a nest nearby. And there is a flock of starlings that swoop down from the power cables when the site isn’t too busy.

As you can see, it’s all happening so the song title provided by Moloko is very apt. Enjoy 😊 

Holiday

What a beautiful Easter weekend! Lots of sunshine and warm temperatures every day. Those clouds just started to get darker on Monday afternoon - good timing!

We spent hours on the allotment over the lovely 4-day weekend. I dug through the area in front of the bench. Lots of couch and hedge roots to remove from the area which has been under weed-suppressant for a few years. 

One particularly large root took a lot of tugging; when it gave, I discovered that it was a (the?) tap-root of the Lovage plant DOH! So I'm quite expecting part of that lovely plant to die off soon... The wet patches are where I've sown some chrysanthemums - I want that area to be a beautiful flower bed... we'll see!

Jamie was working on the carrot trench and it's environmesh cage then sowed two rows of carrots (Eskimo and Early Nantes 5). We really hope they do better than last year when we hardly had any carrots to eat. We're being more generous with our sowings this year, where previously we've been a bit tight; we've decided to sow lots and plan on thinning more than we usually do.

I've been more liberal with my beetroot, parsnip, radish, spring onion and lettuce seeds that went in on Sunday too. 

The watering regime has started. As you can see the ground is very dry, but there may be a few showers this week.

I cleared some weeds and some of the masses of nigella seedlings near the pond. I transplanted a couple of houseleek and hope that they'll spread across the area.

The pots next to the bench will be moved when I plan to have Love Lies Bleeding growing there. The seeds, along with some more sunflowers, are sown into pots and in the polytunnel so I'm hoping the night temperatures don't dip too low. 

The pots are full of various flowers and bulbs including the tulips that my nephew, George, gave us for Christmas which are just developing. Also the bay laurel from my sister, but the cold winds hit it when it was in a different position and some of the leaves went brown. I'm hoping it'll be happier in that more protected spot.

Meanwhile the wallflowers are providing a lovely scent, even though they're beginning to go over now. They come back every year and are messy but so pretty. My mum always insisted on pulling them up each year and then I'd go searching for new plants each spring.

We managed another PSB harvest along with some leeks. Much of the Purple Sprouting Brocolli is covered in yellow flowers now, but I wouldn't be surprised to see another lot of shoots now that I've chopped these off.

I've made leek and chestnut soup, with turmeric, for my lunches. I had to have a taster - delish.

And lastly, we have a frog in the pond on the wildlife plot! I'm not sure if he found his own way there. He may have arrived with a lot of duckweed, which I think the tadpoles will appreciate as protection.

The song title is provided by Weezer - it may have only been 4 days but it felt like a holiday. Bliss!